Photo: belmarrahealth.com

The National Stroke Foundation will receive $1 million over three years through the Medical Research Future Fund for the Return to Life, Return to Work research package.

The project will enable more Australians of working age who have had a stroke to access new innovative and cutting edge treatment options to aid their recovery.

The package will include a clinical trial of Perispinal Etanercept in Australian stroke patients.

Perispinal Etanercept has been used been used in the United States to treat chronic stroke and brain injury in selected patients. This is the first clinical trial of its type in Australia.

The treatment is predicted to reduce inflammation in the brain and therefore stroke’s impact.

There are more than 475,000 stroke survivors living in the community and one third of stroke survivors are under the age of 65.

Stroke kills more women than breast cancer and more men than prostate cancer, and is a leading cause of disability. More than 56,000 Australians have strokes every year.

This funding builds on the $1.5 million I announced earlier this year to allow the Stroke Foundation and Cochrane Australia to provide health professionals with the latest clinical guidelines and real-time research findings, to give stroke patients the best chance for survival.

Supporting medical research is a key priority of the Coalition Government’s long-term national health plan and provides benefits to all Australians.

The Government will invest $7 billion over six years through the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Medical Research Future Fund and the Biomedical Translation Fund.